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The Sad Scene That is The Flamingo's Internet Junction
It's 2010, right? That's what we thought. But during a recent visit to Vegas, this is the sad sight we were confronted with when we needed to print something. It is, friends, the Internet Junction at the Flamingo Las Vegas.
We can't decide what's worse: That we had to pay $13.99 for in-room WiFi here or that it cost us $6.41 to print a couple of pages at the Junction. (Then, of course, there's the matter of that name. Wordplay can be cute, but "Business Center" would work just fine, wouldn't it?)
Tags: Free WiFi / Hotel WiFi / Manhattan Hotels / HotelChatter WiFi Guides / Hotel News / → All Tags
Where to Find Free Hotel WiFi in New York City
Hooking up the free WiFi that's offered with a passcode at the Algonquin Hotel.
We've covered London and we've covered Las Vegas and we know you are chomping at the bit for our New York Guide. Well, chomp no more. Here it is.
We've grouped the hotels by neighborhood but we decided to leave out the numerous locations for budget brands like Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn, Comfort Inn and Best Western which always offer free WiFi. When in doubt, get yourself to the lobby of one of these hotels to access free WiFi.
Looking for a posher place to update your Facebook page, check email and rant on Twitter? Consider these hotels below, all which have free WiFi for its hotel guests (A code and password may be required, hit up the front desk for that.)
And as always, we've started this list off but you can help us out by telling us where you got free hotel WiFi during your last trip to NYC. Do it in comments below or send us an email.
Tags: Hotel WiFi / Viva Vegas / Free Hotel WiFi / HotelChatter WiFi Guides / CES Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
Where to Find Free Hotel WiFi in Vegas
We hope you brought your wireless card with you.
If you're headed to Vegas this weekend for CES or the Adult Entertainment Expo, chances are you're gonna need a WiFi connection for all your uploading, downloading, Twittering, Facebooking, blogging, and other, ahem, recreational activities.
The bad news is that in the privacy of your hotel room, expect to pay at least $10 a day to sign on. Sadly, there really no hotels where in-room WiFi is free. There are, however, plenty of public options. You just have to know where to look.
We've culled together a list of tried and true WiFi hotspots on the strip based on our own experience as well as the knowledge of Vegas expert @24K aka Chris Rauschnot, who is constantly up and down the Strip reporting on the scene--all from his cellphone.
So the next time you find yourself in Vegas for a conference or just some good old debauchery, here's where you can get connected.
Skip on over for VegasChatter for free WiFi that's not limited to hotels.
Tags: Hotel WiFi / Celebrity Scoop / Lady Gaga / WTF Hotel News / Joe Germanotta / → All Tags
Lady Gaga's Papa is the Godfather of Hotel WiFi
It seems that the daddy of Lady Gaga and hotel WiFi have entered into a very good romance. We say that because in reading about the eccentric Gaga in January issue of Elle magazine, she mentions her dad's no "paper gangsta." She telles Elle:
My father is a really powerful man, a telecom guy
So how is making all this bank? He sells WiFi to hotels. (Can you hear that? That's the sound of our USB Wireless card dropping to the ground.)
Joe Germanotta started his own company, Guest WiFi, in 2002, but it's now listed as a past gig on his LinkedIn profile. He got out of the WiFi game to become the owner of House of Gaga Publishing. (We don't blame him.)
But we love that he was a pioneer of hotel WiFi early on—2002 was the dark ages of hotel WiFi. Papa Gaga even company grew to count over 70 hotels and conference centers as clients.
Tags: Hotel WiFi / London Hotels / Free Hotel WiFi / HotelChatter Free WiFi Guides / → All Tags
Where to Find Free Hotel WiFi in London
The May Fair: where WiFi and celeb spots both come free of charge
This week, the Sunday Times called out British hotels charging obscene rates for WiFi. Unsurprisingly, London ones were among the worst offenders, with the Mandarin Oriental charging £15 a day, the Dorchester coming in at £19.50 and the Ritz scamming guests for £25. Yup, $42 for one day’s access.
But don’t be afeared – if you need the laptop but don’t want to see your check out bill rocket, there are places in London that don’t charge for WiFi, and they’re just as snazzy as the rip offs listed above.
We’re happy to report that there are more than we expected, so we’ve divided them into lists of their own. And we’ll keep adding to this as we get more. If we’ve missed any out, let us know in the comments below.
Tags: Infamous Hotels of the Week / Hotel WiFi / Hotel Porn / Bill Simmons / Hotel Conspiracies / → All Tags
Is This The Real Reason Why Hotels Have Bad WiFi Connections?
Porn jammers! Old men in the club! Fergie! Hotel Strikes!
It always seems that no matter how much Celebrity Scoop we write about in a given week, there's also lots more that we didn't have time to get to. So from now on, every Friday we'll be rounding up the week's Infamous Hotels. This weekly list will include hotels that celebrities visited (and it made the news) but also hotels that really up the "Eww" factor. This can easily done by manipulating the WiFi connection for guests.
The Sports Guy aka Bill Simmons recently offered up his take on Hotel WiFi after spending four weeks on the road promoting his new book. According to Bill, he stayed in nine hotels and all of them had wireless. (Hey that's an improvement from the past!) But he noticed that the connection was also worse at night than in the morning. We've noticed that too and just chalked it up to more people being in their rooms at night, doing work, surfing the internet, downloading episodes of "Glee" and the like. But Bill has a different and way better theory.
It's my belief thatcertain hotels scramble their wireless at night to discourage guests from surfing for porn. Why? So they will order adult entertainment from the hotel's pay-per-view system. I know ... it's dastardly. But if you're the hotel, why give the milk away for free when you can make people pay for the cow?
More importantly, would you really put it past them? This is the same business that built motion detectors into mini-bars; they're going to give up the in-room porn business without a fight? It's evil, it's desperate, it's despicable and brilliant. The Porn Jammer is my Great Call of the Week.
Well said, Sports Guy. Well said.
Tags: Digital Nomad Hotels / Hotel WiFi / Hotel Lobbies / Fort Lauderdale Hotel Reviews / W Hotels / → All Tags
Digital Nomad Lobbies: WiFi By The Beach At W FLL
There has been a lot of talk recently about the lifestyle of digital nomads -- folks who work from wherever they might roam. HotelChatter has been covering hotel wifi since the beginning, but as we cited in our 2009 annual hotel wifi report times they are a changin'.
Hotel: W Fort Lauderdale
Location Layout: There are three main lobby, or living room levels and the pool/patio area. The property is vast, which is great for a digital nomad because you can tuck yourself away and bother no one.
Outlets: Peppered around the lobby. Get this, at Steak 954, the onsite restaurant they actually offered to move me with a seat near an outlet.
Furniture: Couches, chairs, stools, you name it you can find it.
Digital Nomad Tolerance: High. You can move from floor one to floor two, even outdoors to the patio where you will find plenty of shade that allows you to read your screen with ease.
Phone Calls: Not a problem, pick a quiet spot and go for it.
Overall Mood: Business at the beach.
Digital Nomad Grade: A
Tons of furniture choices, the inside outside option, enough outlets, other business meetings going on, and, they offer free wireless internet in the lobby if you don't have a broadband card.
Tags: Hotel WiFi / WiFi Hell / Starwood Hotels / Seville Hotels / → All Tags
The Alfonso XIII May Be Seville’s Grandest Hotel, But Its Wifi is Less Than Grand
Relaxing weekends never pan out the way you planned them do they? And our trip to Seville this weekend was no exception. Leaving aside the whiplash from the crashy landing on Sunday night (thanks Ryanair) and the fact that we didn’t partake in enough cerveza sessions, we spent much of the two days seething about the dire internet situation at the Hotel Alfonso XII, where we were shacked up.
Switching on the laptop as is our wont on arrival at a hotel, we were sad to see no WiFi networks showing. Yes there was an ethernet cable, but our 'pooter lacks the requisite hole.
We called reception, who told us not to worry, that there was a computer downstairs for us to check our email. So we worried. Is there no wireless, we asked. The answer came back: "Yes, but it’s better to use our computer. " Ugh, we worried even more.
Tags: Twitter / Washington Hotels / Hotel Deals / Hotel WiFi / → All Tags
Hotel Murano Rewards Twitter Followers With Discounts and Free WiFi
Any hotel that links directly to TripAdvisor from their homepage has a lot of gall. Guest ratings can sometimes make or break a hotel's reputation, but if service is up to snuff and they know it, then no harm done.
Not only does Tacoma's Hotel Murano include said link on their website (with predictably positive ratings, save for a couple service stumbles), but they've gone the Twitter route (@hotel_murano) to stay connected with potential customers. While you won't find gossipy tweets about what goes on behind the concierge desk, you will find need-to-know information about insider deals, like this recent post advertising $79 rates (marked down from $99) plus free Wi-Fi for bookings from October 15-18. You'll have to make your reservation by the 15th to get the discount, so commence rapid fire clicking now.
Tags: Twitter / Hotel WiFi / → All Tags
Hotels That Charge for WiFi Are Probably On Famous Writer's Blacklist
Earlier today, New Yorker writer and novelist Susan Orlean re-tweeted a very profound statement made by another Twitterer, Dadigan with a resounding "YES!":
Shouldn't they've amended the constitution to make free wifi a basic human right? I boycott hotels that charge for wifi."
Hmm...to all the hotels out there currently charging for WiFi, just let that sink in for a moment. You loved The Orchid Thief and the movie "Adaptation" didn't you? Now just think about how Susan Orlean probably won't be staying at your hotel. Just think about that. Think a little longer...a little longer...ok, that will do for now.
Travel writer and Twitterer David Farley also pointed out via another Twitterer (this Twitter thing is crazy, no?) that 100 years ago, hotels charged for hot water. But of course, that's now free. Hopefully, hotels will be quick to pick up on this free WiFi fad soon.
Tags: Digital Nomad Hotels / Hotel WiFi / Hotel Lobbies / Viva Vegas / → All Tags
So What? The Ace Hotel is Still a Rock Star (For Digital Nomads)
There has been a lot of talk recently about the lifestyle of digital nomads -- folks who work from wherever they might roam. HotelChatter has been covering hotel wifi since the beginning, but as we cited in our 2009 annual hotel WiFi report times they are a changin'.
The biggest change on the tech side is the growing popularity of the usb broadband card. As more and more people buy into these cards (and more and more GMs pray to the hotel gods they do) there are a growing number of digital nomads that no longer tap into a hotel WiFi network.
Instead, these nomads are in search of killer hotel lobbies to comfortably work in. That's right, digital nomads have no problem coming in, kicking back on hotel lobby couches and doing an hours worth of work. So once again hotels have a choice -- welcome these folks, pay no mind to them, or actively try to kick them out.
With this in mind, we figured it was time for us to start rating hotel lobbies on their digital nomad quotient. In our latest edition, the The Ace Hotel New York.
Tags: Digital Nomad Hotels / Hotel WiFi / Hotel Lobbies / Viva Vegas / → All Tags
Digital Nomad Lobbies: Encore's Lobby Bar and Cafe
There has been a lot of talk recently about the lifestyle of digital nomads -- folks who work from wherever they might roam. HotelChatter has been covering hotel wifi since the beginning, but as we cited in our 2009 annual hotel wifi report times they are a changin'.
It's time for us to start rating hotel lobbies on their digital nomad quotient. We continue this series with the Encore Las Vegas where we found ourselves hanging out yesterday at the hotel's Lobby Bar and Cafe.
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